Organisers of the long-established PDM Event have confirmed that the 2018 edition of the UK’s annual exhibition and conference covering all aspects of plastics design and manufacture will return to its traditional home at the Telford International Centre on 19 and 20th June 2018.

The free to attend PDM conference runs on both days of the event and will cover the latest in plastics design and manufacture including moulding processes, rapid prototyping, materials innovation, plastics recycling and sustainability issues. Featuring speakers from different sectors of the UK plastics industry, the conference sessions will include examples of innovative approaches in design, new technology within moulding in both materials and machinery – as well as scientific discoveries in the field.

Supported by major industry trade associations, PDM Event is the place to meet a cross-section of the industry, from existing customers and contacts to brand new leads and business opportunities.

“We are delighted to confirm that PDM will return to its established home of the Telford International Centre in June 2018,”, said Matt Barber, Event Director at organiser Crain Communications. “Feedback from our exhibitors and visitors alike has encouraged us to return to the event’s core strengths as a plastics design, manufacturing and recycling event, including both an exhibition and free conference, as well as to return to our traditional and very popular venue of the Telford International Centre.”

Mark Lawson, Managing Director, of PDM exhibitor LawsonKeys said of the event: “We are looking forward to exhibiting again at PDM 2018. 80% of the business we secure is from customers we have invited to come to see us at PDM. It’s a must-attend event for us; it is a well-organised event and the logistics involved are easy.”

PDM 2018 is the perfect place for plastics and design professionals to network, learn and do business. Industry associations supporting PDM 2018 include: the British Plastics Federation (BPF), plastics recycling organisation RECOUP, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and the Gauge & Toolmakers Association (GTMA).

Home to over 100 polymer-related companies, Telford has been known for “plastics valley” for over 20 years and was the venue for PDM’s debut show in 2005. Easily accessible from the M6 and M54 motorways, the Telford International Centre provides free parking for over 1,500 cars. The adjacent Southwater development offers visitors and exhibitors a choice of bars, restaurants and post-event entertainment.

The PDM Event exhibition and conference is free to attend. For more information on visiting or exhibiting visit: www.pdmevent.com

Companies who are interested in speaking at the PDM Conference please email their topic, speaker name and brief summary to Donna Bushell at dbushell@crain.com

Companies who are interested in exhibiting at PDM 2018 should contact:

The shortlist for the 2017 Plastics Industry Awards (PIAs) has been published. Winners will be announced by TV presenter Nick Knowles, best known for DIY SOS, at a glittering masquerade ball themed gala event on Friday 27th October at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

Now in their 17th year, the Plastics Industry Awards comprise 15 categories covering product design, materials usage, manufacturing, training and environmental performance. The PIAs highlight and recognise the best that the innovative UK plastics industry has to offer. This year’s black tie event is set to attract around 800 guests including supplier companies, OEM manufacturers, plastics processors, consultants, trainees and designers. The PIAs won a Silver Award at the 2017 Awards Awards in the category of Best Awards Event by a Publisher.

Shortlisted companies for Consumer Product of the Year are RPC Promens and Omlet. RPC Promens has achieved the distinction of having two different products shortlisted. Faulkner Moulds, Gripple and WaveGrip make up the shortlisted companies for Industrial Product of the Year. Finalists for the Best Recycled Plastic Product of the Year are Axion Polymers & 1env Solutions, Fishy Filaments, HAHN Plastics, Marmax Recycled Products and Recycling Technologies.

Three individuals have been shortlisted for Young Designer of the Year and six people have made it through as finalists for the Apprentice of the Year. Winners of each award are due to receive a £1,000 prize. A Personal Contribution to the Plastics Industry award will also be announced on the night.

Matt Barber, sales and events director at Crain Communications, which organises the PIAs and publishes Plastics News Europe, said: “I am very proud that the PIAs won a Silver Award at this year’s Awards Awards after our outstanding success in 2016. We are delighted to welcome all the finalists, their guests and representatives from across the UK plastics industry to our 2017 event, which is set to be our best ever.”

Table bookings for the gala dinner and awards ceremony are now available. Tickets include a champagne reception, four-course dinner, celebrity awards presentation and after-show entertainment.

Sponsors of the Plastics Industry Awards 2017 include Engel UK (Processor of the Year); RJG Technologies (Best Training and Development Programme); Hasco (Supplier Partnership – Toolmaker); Distrupol (Industrial Product Design); Motan Colortonic (Young Designer of the Year); Sumitomo (SHI) Demag (Apprentice or Trainee of the Year); Fanuc (Best Environmental or Energy Efficiency Programme) and Meusburger (Best Business Initiative). The awards also enjoy the support of industry associations including the British Plastics Federation, British Industrial Design Association, RECOUP, GTMA and PMMDA.

Entries have opened for this year’s Plastics Industry Awards (PIAs), which culminate in a glamorous black tie gala evening at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Friday 27 October. The deadline for award entries is 16 June 2017. Interested companies and individuals can submit entries at: www.plasticsawards.com

Now in their 17th year, the Plastics Industry Awards are organised and produced by Crain Communications and have been shortlisted in two categories in this year’s Awards Awards: Best Overall Awards Event over 500 attendees and Best Awards Event by a Publisher.

Companies and individuals including OEM manufacturers, suppliers, plastics processors, consultants, trainees and designers from across the plastics sector in the UK and Republic of Ireland are encouraged to enter in 15 different award categories.

Design awards include separate categories for the plastic consumer and industrial products of the year.

“Winning a PIA award is recognition from our peers and is, therefore, held in high esteem amongst the sectors and businesses we work,” said Matthew Conley, senior designer, HJC Design winners of Industrial Product Design of the Year in 2016. “The awards night is a great promotion for the business, which has led to several large commissions. The event itself is a wonderful night.”

Individual awards include Young Designer of the Year, Apprentice or Trainee of the Year and an Unsung Hero Award. The Young Designer of the Year will receive a £1,000 prize, donated by Motan Colortronic. The Apprentice or Trainee of the Year Award also carries a prize of £1,000 donated by the Polymer Machinery Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMMDA). For the Unsung Hero Award, organisations are invited to nominate a staff member who goes above and beyond the call of duty in their day-to-day work life.

“This award has helped to raise my profile both within the industry and in academic circles, helping me to build and develop my networks within the industry and inspire future students from my university,” said Lucy Hickling, product supervisor, at Plastribution and winner of Apprentice or Trainee of the Year 2016.

Environmental achievements are recognised in the best environmental or energy efficiency award and the best recycled plastic product category.

“The Plastics Industry Award has been great for raising the profile of our business with existing customers and target prospects,” said Mark Brazier, sales & marketing director of Counterplas Ltd, winner of Best Recycled Plastic Product in 2016. “It has also been a very positive experience for the whole Counterplas team.”

With teamwork so important in today’s plastic product manufacturing, there are also supplier partnership awards for prime and ancillary machinery, toolmakers and material suppliers. One of the most sought-after awards is the processor of the year trophy. Categories recognising industry innovation include best business initiative, best training and development programme and best technology application. In addition, judges will choose the winner of the prestigious personal contribution award.

Table bookings for the gala dinner and awards ceremony are now available. Tickets include a champagne reception, four-course dinner, celebrity awards presentation and after-show entertainment.

Sponsors of the Plastics Industry Awards 2017 include Engel UK (Processor of the Year); RJG Technologies (Best Training and Development Programme); Hasco (Supplier Partnership – Toolmaker); Distrupol (Industrial Product Design); Motan Colortonic (Young Designer of the Year); Sumitomo (SHI) Demag (Apprentice or Trainee of the Year); Fanuc (Best Environmental or Energy Efficiency Programme) and Meusburger (Best Business Initiative). The awards also enjoy the support of industry associations including the British Plastics Federation, British Industrial Design Association, RECOUP, GTMA and PMMDA.

Winners of the 2016 Plastics Industry Awards (PIAs) were revealed on Friday 30th September by Sports TV presenter Mark Durden-Smith in front of a Great Gatsby-themed audience of over 650 plastics industry professionals at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Award-winning entries included self-adjusting glasses, a teenagers’ suitcase, a pocketable sharps holder for diabetics, an intelligent hand dryer and a loft stilt made from recycled plastic.

Eyejusters affordable, innovative self-adjusting glasses that offer the possibility of clear vision for the first time to millions in the developing and developed world won no less than three awards in what are known as the Oscars of the UK plastics industry. It won the Best Business Initiative of the Year, while Fanuc UK won the Supplier Partnership – Prime Machinery Award for its work with Eyejusters and Hi-Tech Automation also scooped the Supplier Partnership – Ancillary Machinery award for its contribution to the same product. Eyejusters was also a finalist in the prestigious Consumer Product of the Year.

Winner of the Consumer Product of the Year was Trunki for the Jurni, a super-strong, skate-wheeled suitcase for teenagers that can also be used for locker style storage when not on the move. PIA judges were impressed by its extensive use of plastic mouldings, clever design and minimal use of metal, screws and fixings. Trunki won the same award in 2012 with the Trunki Mk V.

Industrial Product Design of the Year went to HJC Design for SA Vortex’s Eco-Curve eco-efficient and intelligent hand dryer. Judges praised it for engineering excellence, extensive use of recycled plastics and appropriately clean design.

Best Recycled Product of the Year went to Counterplas for the Loft Stilt, designed in collaboration with Birmingham Innovations. Made from 100 per cent recycled polypropylene, Loft Stilt enables home owners to raise the height of a loft floor above existing joists to achieve a maximum loft insulation thickness of 270mm.

Adam Haynes won Young Designer of the Year for the Bastion portable sharps bin, a unique pen-sized case moulded from polypropylene which for the first time allows diabetics to carry a day’s supply of needles in a neat, pocketable container. Adam received a £1,000 prize donated by Motan Colortronic.

Other winners in of individual awards included Julia Moore, Chief Executive of the GTMA (Gauge and Tool Makers Association) who was given the Personal Contribution Award for her many years furthering the cause of UK plastics manufacturing. Paul Hunter of Andel Plastics won a champagne lunch for two at Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill, courtesy of Lawson Keys in the new category of Unsung Hero. Apprentice or Trainee of the Year went to Lucy Hickling of Plastribution, who won £1,000 donated by the Polymer Machinery Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMMDA).

Matrix Plastics scooped the revised award of Supplier Partnerships – Materials for its work with Belgian food packaging group deSter to develop new and innovative colours in plastic packaging for airline-based applications.

“This is the sixteenth time we have brought the UK plastics industry together to celebrate an outstanding year of innovation. Our winners are driving UK plastics forward and making a real difference on an individual, industry-wide and environmental level. I am delighted we are able to give them the national recognition they deserve,” said Steve Crowhurst, managing director at Crain Communications, which organises the PIAs.

Plastics Industry Awards 2016 winners:

Consumer Product Design of the Year – Trunki Jurni suitcase

Industrial Product Design of the Year – HJC Design for Eco-Curve hand dryer

Best Recycled Plastic Product – Counterplas for the Loft Stilt

Young Designer of the Year – Adam Haynes for Bastion Portable Sharps Bin

Apprentice or Trainee of the Year – Lucy Hickling of Plastribution

Best Technology Application of the Year – Sumitomo Demag UK

Best Environmental or Energy Efficiency Programme of the Year – Rutland Plastics

Best Business Initiative of the Year – Eyejusters

Best Training and Development Programme of the Year – Corrosion Resistant Products

Launched in 2001, and held annually in London, the Plastics Industry Awards are dedicated to rewarding innovation and exceptional performance in an increasingly competitive market. Sixteen categories cover materials usage, product design, manufacturing, training and environmental performance, and entries are judged by a panel of industry experts*.

Best Places to Work in the UK Plastics Industry
Announced at PDM Event

15 June 2016 – Organisers of the Plastics Design & Moulding Event (PDM Event) taking place at the Telford International Centre today have announced The Best Places to Work in the UK Plastics Industry in a scheme run by PRW magazine.

Plastribution, the Ashby-de-la-Zouch-based materials distributor, has been named as the overall winner in PRW’s inaugural Best Places to Work in the UK Plastics Industry programme.

Four other winning companies were named as Knutsford-based compounder and distributor Albis UK; Cannock-based toolmaking and processing group Goodfish; Plastic Card Services, a plastic card manufacturer based in Macclesfield, and Tamworth-based ancillaries supplier Summit Systems.

The process which arrived at the winning firms was managed for PRW by Best Companies Group (BCG), a US-based independent workplace research group which specialises in identifying and recognising highly regarded employers in the UK and North America.

Eligible companies had to have at least 15 employees working in the UK and derive at least 50% of their business from plastic-related activities, including injection moulding, extrusion, blow moulding, thermoforming or rotational moulding; plastics recycling, compounding or distribution; mould making, and other equipment supply services.

Firms registered for free to take part in the programme, filling out an employer questionnaire which accounted for 25% of a company’s overall evaluation.

Staff at registering companies then filled out an employee engagement and satisfaction survey, designed to evaluate their workplace experience and organisational structure.

The two sets of combined data were then used by BCG analysts to determine the strengths and opportunities in each company.

Speaking about the awards, BCG’s Andrew O’Kelly said that the survey found that “an incredible 86%” of staff working for the winning firms could be deemed ‘engaged employees’, versus an average score of 35%.

“Your workers believe in your company’s mission, they believe that their work really matters and, most importantly, they believe that they are being treated fairly and with respect. That is a pretty amazing accomplishment,” he said.

PRW editor Hamish Champ said: “We would like to congratulate the five winning firms, all of whom can take a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that their staff, who filled in the questionnaires anonymously, clearly derive a great deal of satisfaction from both their job and their working environment.

“We were also delighted to have worked with Best Companies Group to assess which firms in the UK plastics industry are deemed to be the best ones to work for.”

70 Most Influential People in The UK Plastics Industry Unveiled at PDM Event

Nine Women Break Through “Plastic Ceiling”

The 70 Most Influential People in the UK Plastics Industry were unveiled today at the Plastics Design & Moulding Event (PDM Event) taking place at the Telford International Centre today and tomorrow (14-15th June).

The list of 70 top influencers includes representatives from across the plastics industry from machinery and materials sectors and distribution through to processing, with many of those named on the list actually present at the event. It also includes high-profile national figures such as the Prime Minister, David Cameron; George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England.

David Cameron

Of the 70, nine women have broken through the “plastic ceiling” including Jane Bickerstaffe, director of packaging industry organisation of Incpen, Julia Moore, the long-serving chief executive of the Gauge and Toolmakers Association (GTMA), Karen Drinkwater, director of JSC Rotational Moulding and Professor Marianne Gilbert, of the PVC Centre, Loughborough University.

Jane Bickerstaffe, Julia Moore and Karen Drinkwater

Buyers for the large companies who use plastic in their products figure prominently including representatives of Britain’s biggest automotive manufacturers Jaguar Land Rover, Ford Europe, General Motors, Honda UK, Nissan Europe and Toyota UK. Prominent product designer and entrepreneur James Dyson also makes the list.

Packaging experts from some of Britain’s biggest retailers feature including Paul Earnshaw, packaging management director at Tesco; Kevin Vyse, packaging technologist and innovation lead at Marks & Spencer and Jane Skelton, head of packaging at Sainsbury’s.

Among the many advocates of the plastics industry in the UK perhaps the most prominent is Philip Law, director-general of the British Plastics Federation. As awareness grows of the impact of plastics in the marine environment, Samantha Fanshawe, chief executive of the Marine Conservation Society is also included.

The list was drawn up using the results of a readers’ poll in PRW, trade magazine for the UK polymer industry, and the findings of a specially-convened panel of PRW staff and long-standing industry figures. It comprises individuals of UK citizenship or working in the UK and has been ordered alphabetically, not by degree of influence.

Trailblazers in plastics innovation, manufacturing, and recycling will convene in Telford next week for the annual Plastics Design & Moulding Event (PDM Event). A true showcase of the UK’s dynamic plastics sector, the free-to-attend PDM Event will take place at the Telford International Centre from 14 to 15 June 2016.

Around the exhibition new energy-efficient machinery will be unveiled, ground-breaking technology such as 3D-printing will be demonstrated and leading retailers will discuss advances in plastics recycling. The results of two new industry surveys – Best Places to Work in UK Plastics and Most Influential People in the UK PlasticsIndustry – will be announced, and the skill and professionalism of UK plastics’ moulders will be proudly on display, as technicians compete in the Quick Mould Change Competition.

Meanwhile in the free conference sessions, expert speakers will discuss a wide range of issues facing the sector from Industry 4.0 (smart factories), patents and social media, to carrier bags, the Courtauld Commitment 2025 and plastic trends in automotive engineering. Talented designers will be lining up at the free Plastics Surgery with their plastics conundrums, and experts from the Plastics Consultancy Network will offer solutions.

Home to over 100 polymer-related companies, Telford has a world-class reputation as a centre of the plastics industry. Local companies exhibiting at the PDM Event include Proto Labs, Sprint Tool and Die and Stäubli. Visitors can also find out about the courses and training available from the Polymer Training & Innovation Centre in Telford, and talk to RAPRA (Rubber and Plastics Research Association) a non-profit membership association based at the University of Wolverhampton.

“PDM Event will showcase the sort of innovation, talent and hard work that is winning UK firms business in the international marketplace,” says Event Director, Steve Crowhurst.

PDM Event Highlights:

Tesco’s Head of Consumables and Waste & Recycling Procurement will reveal how the retailer has closed the plastic recycling loop by offering single-use carry bags made from its own plastic waste

Recycling charity Recoup will conduct an EU Brexit poll on their stand – votes will be cast on empty plastics drinks bottles

Award-winning product designs will be showcased. These include a plastic medical device expected to sell throughout the world, and described “as useful on the battlefield as it is in a Harley Street medical centre”, and a high-tech waterproof glove which will be displayed on a robotic hand.

Boy, Borche (supplied by Plastics Machinery Sales), Engel and Romi are the among the exhibitors who will have working machinery on their stands

There will be many UK debuts at PDM Event including the new Golden Electric machine on the Arburg stand, the TruMark Station 3000 for laser marking on the TRUMPF stand, a new hopper loader on the Renmar stand and the Magna T Servo injection moulding machine on the Milacron Ferromatik stand.

The PDM Event exhibition and conferences – including the Plastics Recycling conference – are free to attend. Register now at: www.pdmevent.com